Finland's Bronze-Medal Highlights from Men's Olympic Hockey Bracket 2026

Finland defeated Slovakia 6-1 at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday to win the bronze medal in men's hockey.

Nashville Predators forward Erik Haula scored a pair of goals in the victory, and his Preds teammate, goalie Juuse Saros, was nearly perfect, stopping 30 of Slovakia's 31 shots.

Carolina Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho opened the scoring for the Finns 7:27 into the first period, and Haula extended the lead to 2-0 with just under 12 minutes left in the second.

Slovakian team captain and former NHL winger Tomáš Tatar cut the deficit in half when he scored with just 30 seconds remaining in the second period, but the one-goal difference was short-lived.

Roope Hintz deflected a shot from his Dallas Stars teammate Miro Heiskanen on the power play to restore Finland's two-goal lead 8:27 minutes into the third, and Seattle Kraken forward Kaapo Kakko added another goal 42 seconds later, giving the Finns a commanding 4-1 lead.

Los Angeles Kings forward Joel Armia and Haula put an exclamation point on Finland's triumph with one empty-net goal each in the waning minutes.

The Finns overcame the heartbreak of blowing a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 loss to Canada in the semifinals by prevailing in the bronze medal game, but the Slovaks were unable to bounce back from their 6-2 loss to the United States in the semis.

After winning gold at the 2022 Winter Games, Finland has now medaled in men's hockey at back-to-back Olympics, and at five of the past six.

Given that NHL players were not permitted to play at the 2018 or 2022 Winter Games, Finland has medaled at each of the past four Olympics that featured best-on-best tournaments in men's hockey: 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2026.

Four years ago, Slovakia medaled for the first time ever in men's hockey at the Olympics when it beat Sweden to win bronze.

Slovakia was denied a second consecutive bronze, but with a fourth-place finish, they tied their best-ever result in an Olympic hockey tournament featuring NHL players.

They previously came in fourth at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, as they also lost to Finland in the bronze medal game at those Olympics.

This time around, Slovakia greatly exceeded expectations with a fourth-place finish since there are only seven current NHL players on its roster, led by Montreal Canadiens winger Juraj Slafkovský.

One game remains in the men's hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics, as Canada and the United States will meet in the gold medal game on Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET.